The Good Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was lionized last week for announcing a ban on all political ads. Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, said political ads, including manipulated videos and the viral spread of misleading information, presented challenges to civic discourse, ‘all at increasing velocity, sophistication, and overwhelming scale.’ He said he worried the ads… Read more.
Fox News
Roger Ailes, Sexual Predator Who Founded Fox News, Is Dead
Roger Ailes, who shaped the images that helped elect three Republican presidents and then became a dominant, often-intimidating force in American conservative politics at the helm of Fox News until he was forced out last year in a sexual harassment scandal, died on Thursday morning. … ‘Fair and balanced’ was Mr. Ailes’s defining phrase for… Read more.
UPDATE: Fox Extinguishes Sex Pest Bill O’Reilly
I usually reserve updates for the annual book version of my commentaries. On occasions, though, my commentaries elicit such indignant criticisms from people I respect, I feel obliged to respond. This is one of those occasions. Bill O’Reilly of Fox News has been the top-rated host on Cable TV for over 20 years. This is… Read more.
Women Complain Fox News Head, Roger Ailes, Has Dick for Brains
As a chorus of prominent Fox News women have gone public defending Roger Ailes against the wave of sexual-harassment allegations sparked by former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson’s lawsuit, the network’s biggest star, Megyn Kelly, has been conspicuously silent… According to two sources briefed on parent company 21st Century Fox’s outside probe of the Fox… Read more.
Humping Trump Exposes News Anchormen as Worse than Used Car Salesmen
These days, news anchormen serve as little more than hosts of reality TV shows masquerading as news programs. Their programming mantra – “if it bleeds, it leads” – used to reflect reporting on an increasingly violent society. Now it reflects reporting on anything that outrages, scares, or titillates – just to generate ratings. Which, of… Read more.
“Stop the Ebola Scaremongering!”
Thus spoke anchor Shepard Smith … of FOX News no less. His pleading was so warranted because, given the media coverage, one could be forgiven for fearing that Ebola has already become such a contagion, its devastation could rival that of the 1918 Spanish Flu, which killed as many as 50 million people. Frankly, I can… Read more.